


Always playing games, I see how it is

by pellondie



Series: Bruder [2]
Category: Football RPF
Genre: Bayern München, Fluff, Gen, M/M, im bad at tagging shh sorry, im not gonna tag it as sibling incest bc they're not really doing anything incesty here so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-04
Updated: 2014-01-04
Packaged: 2018-01-07 11:57:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1119560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pellondie/pseuds/pellondie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They share a lazy evening together after being apart for weeks, and Basti reveals a tad too much maybe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Always playing games, I see how it is

**Author's Note:**

> So how it turned out, there's actually a lot more people shipping these two than we thought. And... I kind of enjoy throwing my headcanons at you, so I'm just going to make this a small project. (I'm quite nervous about starting a series, omg)  
> I will keep adding pre- and sequels to [this](1111300) original work I posted, because everything will revolve around that basically.
> 
> I'd recommend you to read that first, but if you're just looking for some fluff in general, there's seriously no need to. :) 
> 
> On another note, this part takes place in Munich in Basti's apartment. I decided to let this happen in early 2007, a few months after Tobias' car accident.

 

**February 2007**

 

„What’s that?“

„Hm?“

„Since when- hey, stop, get it back off!“

He could see the confusion on his older brother’s face as his hands stopped in motion and his mouth dropped open to ask why. But Bastian didn’t let him speak, he simply leaned forward on the couch and ran his hand up Tobias’ stomach. His skin felt warm and slightly tense under his touch, and he traced the outlines of what seemed to be initials next to his brother’s navel. AMB. Suppressing a smile, he stroked his thumb lightly over the ancient German letters. He didn’t notice the slight tremble in Tobi’s hands, when he pushed the shirt farther up with his other hand to brush over the right side of his torso. This one went from his hipbone straight up to vanish under his arm. His birth date and coordinates, apparently.

“You got yourself _inked_! Again”, he grinned, half surprised, half teasing. When he looked up, his brother’s eyes were round and big and he blinked a few times before nodding hastily.

“Yeah, uh… didn’t I tell you?” Averting his eyes, he tried to pull down his shirt again and Bastian playfully slapped his hands away.

“Nuh-uh, off with it, I saw something on your shoulder, too.” His tone was demanding, but he made sure Tobias saw his eyes still laughing. His brother’d gotten himself some new tattoos, huh. “I thought you said you never wanted to-“

“I know what I said”, Tobias snapped back. Slightly annoyed and rolling his eyes up at the ceiling, he took the shirt back off swiftly. Dropping it onto the couch next to Bastian, he stood before him, clenching his jaw in discomfort. “There won’t be any more, though. I just needed those.”

Bastian raised his eyebrows at that, eyes flicking from his brother’s face to his left shoulder, then to his stomach, right side of his torso, then his right biceps and back to his face. “When the hell did you get these?”

“Well, we don’t really see each other much at the moment, do we”, Tobi deadpanned, gnawing on his lower lip. He had to smile at that, giving his bare hip a light pat. Instead of answering earnestly, he just replied “Looks good on you, man” before leaning back into the soft backrest. They really did look good on him. Kind of just fit.

His older brother swallowed visibly, thought about that for a moment and then huffed at him. Putting his shirt back on, he flopped down onto the couch next to him, shaking his head. “You’re an idiot.”

“Probably”, Bastian replied, still smiling broadly. He picked up his controller from where he’d abandoned it on the armrest, and began to sort out their game. He selected his team and glanced over at Tobias while he waited for him to pick his. “Why’d you _need_ these, though?”

The older brother kept his gaze on the screen, pursing his lips slightly. “Each one stands for an important person in my life.” Well, that wasn’t exactly an answer he would’ve expected. Bumping his left knee into Tobi’s beside him, he wiggled his eyebrows and flashed his teeth at him as he put one arm on the backrest to face him. “So?”

“So what?”

“So, is there one for your beloved little brother?”

Tobias finally turned his head to look at him, and at first he thought he’d somehow upset him, because his brother looked a little too serious for his taste. He felt the corners of his mouth drop slowly, but then Tobi made a small, amused sound and smirked back at him.

“What makes you think you’re so important to me?”

“Aw, come on now, you don’t wanna hurt your baby brother’s feelings”, he whined, pouting theatrically when Tobi only grinned triumphantly, raised his chin a little and started the game. He immediately turned back towards the screen, shoving his elbow into his brother’s arm.

“Always playing games, even while playing games, I see how it is.” Tobias had to laugh at that, the sound leaving a warm, vibrating feeling in his stomach. It’s been too long since they’d been able to do this. Way too long.

They played in silence for a few minutes, a low curse leaving his mouth from time to time whenever Tobias scored again. And again. “Could you stop doing that?”

“No”, came the simple answer, voice filled with held-back laughter. He let his eyes flick over to his brother once, just to see him smile in amusement, and he saw the tip of one of his tattoos peeking out from beneath his short sleeve. Looking back at the game, he furrowed his brows in concentration.

“But seriously now, what do they mean?”

“Hm?” Tobi scored again, and Bastian rolled his eyes before rubbing a hand over his face.

“Your tattoos, what do they _mean_ ”, he repeated his question. Laying emphasis on the last word in particular, since he honestly wanted to know, actually. He’d thought Tobi would tell him on his own.

Tobias didn’t reply for a few moments, and Bastian already thought he tried to ignore him even asking, but then he exhaled softly through his nose. “Grandma and Grandpa got the one on my right arm. Sarah’s got the one on my left, it’s… well. She got that one. I got my birth date and location down my right side and then I got something on my stomach.”

“Yeah?” he prompted the older one, knowing his love for dragging things out just to annoy him.

“Looks pretty cool, doesn’t it?” Tobi grinned at the screen, clearly enjoying himself, clearly knowing that he knew what he was doing. He groaned and bumped their knees together once more, harder this time. “Just fucking tell me, jeez.”

“It’s obviously not at word.”

“Obviously.”

“Don’t you wanna guess?”

“Are you trying to make me punch you, because you sure as hell are getting there.”

Tobias laughed again, though a lot quieter this time. Bastian saw him looking at him out of the corner of his eye, and he immediately looked back, raising his eyebrows in expectation. It still took a while for him to answer, the color analyst commentating their match on screen, the crowd cheering somewhere in the background.

“It’s yours.”

Bastian felt a soft bolt of heat in his stomach, as quickly gone as it had appeared, and forgot to smile in reply. He’d wanted to act smug, to tease him by telling him he’d known his big brother wouldn’t leave him out, but he couldn’t. Instead he just stared at him, feeling his forehead starting to wrinkle under his frown.

“…Basti?” Hesitant, small, as if he expected him to jump up and leave. He swallowed hard, trying to erase the lump starting to build in his throat, and forced himself to finally smile.

“It is?” Considering his brother’s expression, he did a good job. His features smoothed out a bit, and he nodded once, sharp and hasty.

“’course it is”, he mumbled as he turned back towards the screen, though not moving his fingers. Not moving a single muscle anymore, actually. “It’s Dad’s, Mom’s and your initials. And don’t act like you didn’t realize that from the start.”

“I didn’t-“

“It’s the people I’m most scared of losing.”

Bastian blinked at him in surprise, sort of taken aback by this answer. “It is?” He felt stupid for not being able to reply with something useful, as he was usually the one never afraid of saying what he thought. But this time it was different. He didn’t know what was different, but something was. He could feel it. Could see it in the way his brother’s shoulders had come up, hard and tense against the backrest, as if he was ducking his head to prevent him from looking.

And since he didn’t know what it was, he felt thrown off track. Because he couldn’t talk it away, he couldn’t make jokes about something that he couldn’t grasp. That was just hanging there in the air, somewhere between them, or maybe it was just something stuck in his mind – who the hell knew these things.

“Yeah.”

Tobi loosened his grip on the controller and let it slip into his lap without really noticing. He was just staring blankly at the screen. Suddenly he felt like he had to make things right again, even if he wasn’t sure what went wrong. And if it even was his fault. So he carefully reached out and touched his neck, fingertips brushing over his nape, trying to comfort him.

“Something’s happened, right? Something I don’t know of.”

His brother blinked rapidly, as if to push his thoughts into the right order, and then looked at him sternly. His eyes were trained on his, before they started flicking back and forth between his mouth and a point somewhere on his chest, until he averted them completely. Licking his lips forcefully. He could see them turning white for a second, before the blood poured back in.

“You wanna tell me?”

“There’s nothing to tell, really”, he started, his voice hoarse, and he cleared his throat before returning his stare firmly. “I’m just thinking about death a lot more, after the accident.”

Oh, so that was the problem here. Still. He felt his own body relax slightly, as he smiled at his older brother and drew him in by his neck, bumping their foreheads together. “I’m not gonna go anywhere soon, you hear me.”

Tobias only pressed his lips together, trying to keep himself from looking away. He could see him holding onto his own jeans in a death grip, huffed lightly and dug his fingertips a little deeper into the soft flesh on his neck, just below the hairline. His thumb was sitting in the spot where jaw and ear met, and he started grinning mischievously. “You didn’t think you’d get rid of me that fast, did ya?”

Tobias breathed out in a huff, puffing his breath against Bastian’s chin, and closed his eyes for a moment. He shook his head in reply and Bastian snorted at the weird motion, their heads moving in unison from side to side. Tobias opened his eyes again and looked back up at him, grinning now.

“We good?” He wasn’t only asking if his brother found back to his right mind, he was also asking, because he still felt like it was somehow partly his fault. This whole situation.

“Yeah”, his brother replied silently, though still smiling fondly at him. Satisfied, he leaned back and released him, his forehead feeling somehow cold. Rubbing over it unconsciously with one hand, he settled back into the cushions.

“Good. Now let me kick your ass, this match is far from over.”

“Dream on”, Tobias laughed and picked up his controller. Looked like the day was saved, for now.

**Author's Note:**

> Everything is fictional, I don't own anything, I'm just enjoying to imagine and write this stuff, yo.
> 
> And kudos for the lovely [nupoxsi](../users/nupoxsi/profile) for encouraging me to make this a series, I wouldn't have been able to work this out without your help. <3 Love you~


End file.
